Company of Heroes is the greatest RTS ever made, with the worst gaming community in history. You will spend anywhere between 5 and 45 minutes to start a game. Unless of course you want to play annihilate with high resources like some kind of degenerate.

The true mystery of the game's player base is that they don't seem to know whether or not they even want to play the game. Players are commonly seen joining games and leaving either immediately or after they demand you kick someone else for having a lower level than them.

There can be no improving the game however, and attempts at a sequel will most certainly ruin the game. At least then however, more people will play it.

Pros: Good visuals, workable controls, fun multiplayer modes including demolition derby, and the music isn't awful to listen to.

Cons: Simon plays it.

As far as creating super heroes and pitting them against each other goes, Freedom Force is pretty much your go-to game.
The character creation is fairly open, with some restrictions to multiplayer heroes. You basically have the choice between melee, projectile and direct attacks.
The real challenge of the game doesn't come from creating a successful hero and winning battles, but rather, spending several agonizing hours trying to come as close as possible to the 6000 point hero limit for multiplayer.
The only problem with Freedom Force is the people you play it with...

The people I play with are chodes.